Kilopass claims success despite legal judgment

LONDON – Embedded non-volatile memory intellectual property licensor Kilopass Technology Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has said it is disappointed that the U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed the U.S. District Court's dismissal of a patent infringement case brought by the company against rival Sidense Inc. (Ottawa, Canada). However, Kilopass said that despite the setback it continues enjoy commercial success.

"The case should have gone to jury trial because there are facts in dispute and these are not for the judge to decide," said Charlie Cheng, CEO of Kilopass, in a statement. "We are disappointed but we have to move on. We want to thank our customers and partners for their continual support. We will continue to pioneer the specialty memory market."

Kilopass said that its licensing business in the first quarter was at a record level and up 35 percent on the same period on the previous year. The company added that it had recently received $8 million in funding to help it accelerate its expansion beyond antifuse-based non-volatile memory.

The company added that customers are close to production with Kilopass embedded NVM in 28-nm manufacturing process technology and that the company now has over 150 licensees across consumer, mobility, analog mixed-signal, automotive, and industrial markets. Kilopass said it has demonstrated reliability down to the 20-nm node and has started development of embedded non-volatile memory for FinFET processes.

Kilopass filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sidense in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on May 14, 2010, alleging infringement of Kilopass' one-transistor antifuse technology. At that time Kilopass had been granted five patents by the United State Patent and Trademark Office that it alleged were infringed; by number 6,777,757, 6,856,540, 6,898,116, 6,940,751 and 6,992,925.